About Aria Carlson

Aria Carlson is a wife, mother, artist, and a writer. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband and son. Five months after they were married, Aria and her husband were surprised when she became pregnant. In May of 2012, their son Toby was born. Aria struggled at first to embrace motherhood, since it happened earlier than she was planning; but her heart softened and her desires of being a stay at home mom to lots of littles began to blossom. After Toby’s first birthday, Aria and her husband were excited to learn that they were expecting again. Unfortunately the pregnancy ended in an early miscarriage. It was a difficult journey, but Aria found healing and courage to try again. In October of 2013, she became pregnant again. At 16 weeks Aria was diagnosed with a subchorionic hematoma and put on bed rest. At 18 weeks she was diagnosed with a partial placental abruption and told to continue bed rest. During her 20 week ultrasound she was told that the placental bleed was healing and was hopeful for a good outcome. At 21 weeks Aria experienced severe abdominal pain so her husband took her to the hospital. They were told there that she had experienced Premature Rupture of Membranes (she thought it was just bleeding from the hematoma/placental abruption) and that there was no more amniotic fluid. Aria and her husband fought to find compassionate care in an effort to save their baby. In February of 2014, their daughter Zuri Rose was born at 22 weeks 1 day; they had five beautiful minutes with her before she passed away. Now 15 weeks pregnant, Aria is trying to grieve with grace, while navigating the challenges of a pregnancy after loss. You can read more about her journey, and the many adventures as the mom of a toddler, on her blog The Suburban Hippy Momma.

photo credit: google We can all agree that the grief journey is sacred and unpredictable to each individual. Lately I’ve been feeling that my grief has been shifting, and causing me to change with it. It’s been a slow change, it took a while to distinguish that it was even there; but [...]

Recently, I was looking through some old photos and came across the pictures I'd taken of a little project my husband and I did as a way to honor our daughter, Zuri. With Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month right around the corner, I thought it would be nice to share how we were able [...]

When I was growing up, one of my favorite things to do was to take out the big photo album that my mom had put together. It was an antique-rose colored binder, with the words “family photo album” written in gold pen on the front. I would look at all of the photos and try [...]

photo credit: google It’s been over four months since Zoe joined our family. Initially, I was caught up in doing what came instinctually: bonding with her, adjusting to life with two kids to care for, getting used to no sleep (funny how quickly we forget), etc. I was not only enjoying my new [...]

In the community of parents familiar with loss, we all experience situations where we are asked questions that can make us unsure of how to answer; the most common is “how many children do you have?” Now that I’ve gone through the experience of having a rainbow baby, a new question has been added to [...]

I had no idea what to expect of myself after Zoe’s arrival, so I tried to be prepared for whatever might come. Emotionally I’ve been able to stay stable (mostly), which has actually surprised me; my track record hasn’t always been the best when it comes to handling major life changes. A few weeks after [...]

Zoe Grace For majority of my pregnancy, my main concern was about keeping baby girl inside of me until it was safe for her to come out; once I hit the full-term mark I suddenly felt like she would be safer outside of me, where I could see her and hold her. [...]

This week has been an emotional one. Now being considered full term, I’ve been eager to get the labor process started and meet this little gal. My husband and family are all on high alert; any time I call one of them I have to start the conversation with “still pregnant” or “nothing is going [...]

36 weeks! 36 weeks- Finally. It feels like it’s taken forever to get to this point, early term. At my last appointment my doctor said that while she’d like baby to stay put for a little longer, if labor was to start they wouldn’t do anything to stop it. So technically, baby [...]

Dear Sweet Momma, Of all the things I want to share with you about the journey of being pregnant after a loss, nothing matters more than affirming to you just how brave you are. You are brave for putting your feet on the floor every day, staring fear in the face and saying “you don’t [...]